Aostan French (french: français valdôtain) is the variety of French spoken in the

Aosta Valley , Valdostan or Valdotainian it, Valdostano (man) it, Valdostana (woman)french: Valdôtain (man)french: Valdôtaine (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = Official languages , population_blank1 = Italian French ...

, Italy.

History

The Aosta Valley was the first government authority to adopt Modern French as working language in 1536, three years before

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

itself. French has been the official language of the

since 1561, when it replaced Latin. In the 1861 census, the first held after the unification of Italy, 93% declared being Francophone; in 1921, the last census with a question about language found that 88% of the population was French-speaking. The suppression of all French-language schools and institutions and violence against French speakers during the forcible

Italianisation Italianization ( it, italianizzazione; hr, talijanizacija; french: italianisation; sl, poitaljančevanje; german: Italianisierung; el, Ιταλοποίηση) is the spread of Italian culture, language and identity by way of integration or a ...

campaign of the Fascist government irretrievably damaged the status of French in the region. Italian and French are nowadays the region's

official language An official language is a language given supreme status in a particular country, state, or other jurisdiction. Typically the term "official language" does not refer to the language used by a people or country, but by its government (e.g. judiciary, ...

s and are used for the regional government's acts and laws, though Italian is much more widely spoken in everyday life, and French is mostly used by intellectuals and within cultural events. Though French was re-introduced as an official language after World War II, by 2003 just 0.99% reported speaking

standard French Standard French (in French: ''le français standard'', ''le français normé'', ''le français neutre'' eutral Frenchor ''le français international'' nternational French is an unofficial term for a standard variety of the French language. It ...

natively. French remains widely known as a second language, but it is no longer spoken as part of daily life. In 2001, 75.41% of the population of Aosta Valley was French-speaking, 96.01% declared to know Italian, 55.77%

Franco-Provençal Franco-Provençal (also Francoprovençal, Patois or Arpitan) is a language within Gallo-Romance originally spoken in east-central France, western Switzerland and northwestern Italy. Franco-Provençal has several distinct dialects and is separ ...

, and 50.53% all of them. School education is delivered equally in both Italian and French so that everyone who went to school in Aosta Valley can speak French and Italian at least at a medium-high level.

Influences

Aostan French is characterized by terms adopted from the valdôtain dialect of

and sometimes from

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

. In this sense, it is quite similar to Savoyard dialect and to valaisan dialect as spoken in

Valais Valais ( , , ; frp, Valês; german: Wallis ), more formally the Canton of Valais,; german: Kanton Wallis; in other official Swiss languages outside Valais: it, (Canton) Vallese ; rm, (Chantun) Vallais. is one of the 26 cantons forming the S ...

Lexicon

Numerals

Unlike standard French of France, Aostan French uses: * Seventy: '' septante'' * Eighty: '' huitante'' * Ninety: '' nonante''

Meals

* Breakfast = ''déjeuner'' * Lunch = ''dinée'' or ''dîner'' * Dinner = ''souper''

Bibliography

* Jean-Pierre Martin, ''Description lexicale du français parlé en Vallée d'Aoste'', éd. Musumeci,

Quart The quart (symbol: qt) is an English unit of volume equal to a quarter gallon. Three kinds of quarts are currently used: the liquid quart and dry quart of the US customary system and the of the British imperial system. All are roughly equ ...

, 1984 (source) * Alexis Bétemps, ''La langue française en Vallée d'Aoste de 1945 à nos jours'' T.D.L.,

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city ...

Jules Brocherel Jules is the French form of the Latin "Julius" (e.g. Jules César, the French name for Julius Caesar). It is the given name of: People with the name * Jules Aarons (1921–2008), American space physicist and photographer *Jules Abadie (1876–19 ...

, ''Le Patois et la langue française en Vallée d'Aoste'' éd. V. Attinger,

Neuchâtel , neighboring_municipalities= Auvernier, Boudry, Chabrey (VD), Colombier, Cressier, Cudrefin (VD), Delley-Portalban (FR), Enges, Fenin-Vilars-Saules, Hauterive, Saint-Blaise, Savagnier , twintowns = Aarau (Switzerland), Besançon (Fra ...

* ''La minorité linguistique valdôtaine'', éd. Musumeci,

(1968). * Rosellini Aldo, ''La francisation de la Vallée d'Aoste'', dans ''Studi medio latini e volgari'', vol. XVIII, 1958. * Keller, Hans-Erich, ''Études linguistiques sur les parlers valdôtains'', éd. A. Francke S.A., Berne, 1958. * Schüle, Ernest, ''Histoire linguistique de la Vallée d'Aoste'', dans ''Bulletin du Centre d'Études francoprovençales'' n° 22, Imprimerie Valdôtaine, Aoste, 1990. * Favre, Saverio, ''Histoire linguistique de la Vallée d'Aoste'', dans ''Espace, temps et culture en Vallée d'Aoste'', Imprimerie Valdôtaine, Aoste, 1996. * François-Gabriel Frutaz, ''Les origines de la langue française en Vallée d'Aoste'', Imprimerie Marguerettaz, Aoste, 1913. * Mgr. Joseph-Auguste Duc, ''La langue française dans la Vallée d'Aoste'', Saint-Maurice, 1915. *

Anselme Réan Anselm de Guibours (born 1625) (Father Anselm of the Blessed Mary, O.A.D., french: Père Anselme de Sainte-Marie, or simply ''Père Anselme'') was a French Discalced Augustinian friar and noted genealogist. Biography He was born Pierre de Guibours ...

, ''La phase initiale de la guerre contre la langue française dans la Vallée d'Aoste'', Ivrée, 1923. * * Bérard, Édouard, ''La langue française dans la Vallée d'Aoste : réponse à M. le chevalier Vegezzi-Ruscalla'', Aoste, 1861 (rééd. 1962). * Bétemps, Alexis, ''Les Valdôtains et leur langue'', avant-propos d'Henri Armand, Imprimerie Duc, Aoste, 1979.

References

{{authority control Languages of Italy French dialects Languages of Aosta Valley